The Communications and Multimedia Act 1998 (CMA) 1998 will be amended and not repealed for now, said Communications and Multimedia Minister Gobind Singh Deo.
He said the Pakatan Harapan (PH) government could not repeal the CMA for now even though it promised in its 14th General Election (GE14) manifesto to remove laws deemed a threat to free speech.
“CMA deals with a lot of regulatory frameworks…so to repeal it (CMA) now is unattainable. However, certain sections such as Section 233 and 211 of the Act, could be discussed whether to be repealed or not,” he said in an interview with BFM Radio, here, today.
Section 211 deals with improper use of network facilities or network service while Section 233 prohibits the publication of offensive content on the Internet. In the past, Section 233 has been used against Opposition members.
“The amendments to the provisions in the law will also partly to ensure that there will not be political persecution, PH government made good its electoral promise to repeal the Anti-Fake News Act 2018 in Parliament last month.
“The law had been hastily approved by the previous Barisan Nasional (BN) government despite protests earlier this year and took force on April 2, just before the May 9, GE14,” he said.
Gobind said regulators such as the Malaysian Communications And Multimedia Commission (MCMC) must be made neutral in order to function effectively starting by ending the practice of using political appointees to head such organisations.
http://www.theedgemarkets.com/article/gobind-communications-and-multimedia-act-will-be-amended-not-repealed